Nottingham High School

First-class results, a lineage that runs back to 1513, and a single site that carries children from the Nursery through to a large sixth form: Nottingham High School fits a great deal into one central-Nottingham campus. This is a selective, co-educational independent school on Waverley Mount, near the Arboretum, educating roughly 1,186 pupils and students across all its phases, from age 3 to 19. It runs as one all-through community of early years, an Infant and Junior School, a Senior School and a Sixth Form, and its GCSE and A-level results rank among the strongest in England. Andrew Holman took over as Headmaster in September 2025. Entry is by assessment at every stage, fees are charged termly, and means-tested bursaries at Year 7 open the door for families who could not otherwise pay. The result pairs deep heritage with genuine academic firepower.

Founded in 1513 by Dame Agnes Mellers as a free school in the Lace Market, Nottingham High School has moved and reinvented itself more than once. It relocated to its current site off Arboretum Street in 1868 and took its present name, and in 2015 it became fully co-educational, admitting girls throughout what had long been a boys' school. That long arc of change matters: this is an institution comfortable evolving while keeping its bearings.

Day to day, the mood is purposeful rather than pressured. The school sets out its values as excellence, individuality, respect, empathy and curiosity, and those are not just words on a wall. The last full ISI inspection, in February 2024, judged that the school met all the relevant Standards, and described a curriculum that puts academic challenge and individuality first while an extensive co-curricular programme stretches pupils beyond the syllabus. A later ISI material change inspection, in March 2025, cleared the school to extend its age range down to 3 and up to 19. Leaders regularly canvass pupils' views and act on them, which gives the place a sense of being run with its pupils rather than simply for them. Diversity and inclusion are actively promoted across school life, with a clear effect on wellbeing and on how pupils understand other cultures.

The roll call of former pupils underlines how far the school's ambition reaches. The writer D. H. Lawrence passed through at the turn of the twentieth century; the First World War flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient Albert Ball studied here; and the politician Kenneth Clarke and the footballer Patrick Bamford are among more recent names. The Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy, a Master at the school who went on to become one of the most decorated non-combatants of the First World War, is part of the same story. That spread, from letters to public life to sport, captures the kind of horizon the school still sets in front of its pupils.

Leadership changed hands in September 2025, when Andrew Holman became Headmaster. A new head at a school with this much history is worth noting for prospective families, though the academic culture and the results predate any single leader and look set to continue.

Nottingham High School performs at a level very few schools in England reach. At GCSE, around 67% of grades were the very top marks of 9 or 8, and 87% sat in the 9 to 7 band that selective universities and sixth forms care about most. Almost a fifth of all grades, close to 20%, were a grade 7, which shows how heavily the distribution leans towards the top. These are results that keep options wide open for almost every pupil leaving Year 11.

In FindMySchool's proprietary rankings, built from official results, the school places 74th of 3,895 schools in England for GCSE results, a top 1.9% position and among the highest-performing schools in England (ranked against every school in England with published GCSE results, state and independent). A separate overall ranking, which blends those results with an inspection score, puts it 81st of 3,887, and within Nottingham it ranks first. Taken together, GCSE and A-level performance places the school 53rd in England. These are not marginal positions; they reflect consistent strength across the academic core rather than a single strong cohort.

The sixth form carries that momentum forward. At A-level, 33% of entries were graded A*, 72% reached A* or A, and 93% landed in the A* to B band. Set against the England averages of roughly 24% at A*/A and 47% at A* to B, the gap is stark: this cohort roughly triples the typical England rate for the very top grade and doubles it across A* and A together. The sixth form ranks 56th of 2,562 in England for A-level results, a top 2.2% standing that sits well above the England average, with an overall placing of 59th of 2,561 and, again, first in Nottingham. For a school drawing largely from one city rather than the whole country, that consistency across both key stages is the headline.

The primary phase does not sit externally published comparative assessments in the way state primaries do, so the Infant and Junior School is best judged by what follows it: the feed into a senior school operating at the top of the table. What can be said is that the academic standard set in the early years is high, and children in the early phase make good progress and are well prepared for the next stage.

Teaching here is rigorous and subject-led. Subject leaders hold high levels of expertise and a strong understanding of how pupils learn best, and they pitch the work high; pupils engage fully with feedback and make good progress. That is the quiet engine behind the results: specialists who know their material deeply and expect a great deal.

Breadth at A-level matters as much as depth. The sixth form offers 22 A-level subjects, from the academic core of Mathematics, the sciences, English and modern languages through to Economics, Politics, Psychology, Computer Science, Design Technology, Music, and Drama and Theatre, with Further Maths available for the strongest mathematicians. Students typically take three subjects, or four where they choose Further Maths, and the expectation is independence rather than spoon-feeding.

One narrow area was flagged for development at the last inspection: the use of assessment and feedback within relationships, sex and health education, so that pupils there have a clearer sense of their own progress. It is a specific point against a backdrop of strong teaching across the board, rather than a structural weakness, and the school was found to be meeting the relevant Standards throughout.

Progression within the school is structured rather than automatic. Pupils move from the Junior School into the Senior School and on into the Sixth Form, but sixth-form entry carries genuine requirements: a minimum of five grade 7 passes at GCSE, including grade 7 or above in the specific subjects a student intends to study at A-level. The school's own Year 11 students sit alongside external entrants who join at 16, so the sixth form is a mix of continuing and new faces.

Destinations at 18 are overwhelmingly higher education. Of the most recent leaving cohort of 130 students, 82% progressed to university, with smaller numbers moving into employment, further education and apprenticeships. Preparation for competitive courses is a clear strength: in recent results, 21 students gained places on Medicine programmes, and the school runs dedicated support for medicine, dentistry, law and Oxbridge candidates through admissions tests and interviews.

On Oxbridge specifically, recent data shows 27 applications to Oxford or Cambridge yielding 9 offers and 8 confirmed places, split evenly between the two universities, with 4 students heading to Cambridge and 4 to Oxford. An offer rate of roughly a third from a self-selecting applicant pool, converting at close to nine in ten, is a strong showing for a single-city day school and reflects both the calibre of the cohort and the structured support behind it. For families weighing the long game, the sixth form clearly opens doors to the most competitive courses in the country. To see how these destinations compare with other schools on your list, the FindMySchool local hub comparison tool lets you line them up side by side.

Entry is selective at every stage, but the assessment is tailored to the age of the child rather than uniformly exam-heavy. Younger children join through assessment mornings that look at early literacy, numeracy and how a child engages, and the day doubles as a chance for the family to get a feel for the place.

The main senior entry point is Year 7, at age 11, where the assessment steps up to three examinations: an English paper of 60 minutes covering reading comprehension and writing, a Mathematics paper of 50 minutes, and a 60-minute computer-based test of verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Around 100 candidates are invited to interview on the strength of their results, and all external candidates are interviewed. Sixth-form entry at 16 rests on GCSE performance against the published threshold of at least five grade 7s, including grade 7 in the intended A-level subjects, together with a subject-based interview rather than a separate entrance exam.

For September entry the standard registration deadline for full fee-paying places falls on 1 December of the preceding year, so 1 December 2025 for September 2026 admission, with a £60 registration fee. Families seeking a means-tested bursary for Year 7 must apply earlier, by 1 November, because late bursary applications cannot be considered. The school draws from across Nottingham and a wide surrounding area rather than from a fixed catchment, so it is worth placing a school like this on the FindMySchool map alongside others to compare travel times from your address before committing.

Pastoral provision is comprehensive and genuinely effective. Academic and pastoral staff work together to support each pupil, with the result that children are well cared for, fully supported, and grow in confidence and self-esteem as they move up. A dedicated Wellbeing Centre gives that support a physical home, and a thorough personal, social and health education programme runs alongside it. For pupils with additional needs, a Learning Support Team led by a SENCo tailors help to the individual, whether through in-class accommodations or targeted support.

Safeguarding is a clear strength. The last full ISI inspection found safeguarding to be effective, with a comprehensive policy implemented consistently, regularly updated staff training, timely referrals where needed, and pupils who understand how to seek help. Online safety is woven into the curriculum, staff are alert to the risks of extremism and radicalisation, safer recruitment is handled thoroughly, and a single central register is maintained appropriately.

A practical caveat sits here too. The last inspection recommended that the school's formal complaints log be kept so that it fully reflects the timelines set out in its own complaints policy. That is an administrative point about record-keeping rather than a concern about the quality of care, and the underlying pastoral and safeguarding standards were judged to be met in full.

Co-curricular life is one of the school's defining strengths, with well over a hundred clubs and activities spanning the academic, the artistic, the sporting and the practical. A pupil here can build a real specialism without leaving the school gates.

Music has a purpose-built home in the Lady Carol Djanogly Music School, which houses a Recital Hall, academic classrooms, a recording studio and individual practice rooms. The ensembles are plentiful and pitched at every level, from a full Orchestra, Concert Band and Big Band to a senior Chamber Choir, a Lower School Pop Choir, a Clarinet Ensemble and a junior Harp Ensemble, with beginner instrument projects in brass and woodwind for younger students. That structure means a child who plays almost anything, at almost any standard, will find a group to join and a stage to perform on, at venues that extend to Nottingham's Albert Hall and St Mary's Church for larger concerts.

Sport runs on serious facilities. On site there is a 25-metre swimming pool, a large sports hall, a traditional gymnasium, a climbing wall and a fitness suite stocked with free weights, custom-made rigs, WattBikes and Ski-ergometers. The main games, rugby, hockey and cricket for boys, and hockey, netball and cricket for girls, together with athletics, cross country, football, rounders and tennis, are played at the Valley Road playing fields about two miles away, supplemented by hired specialist venues including Highfields Hockey Centre, the Harvey Hadden athletics track, Nottingham Squash Club and an artificial pitch at the Forest Recreation Ground. The breadth means sport is part of the weekly rhythm for the many, not just the competitive few, with swim squads, fitness circuits and club sessions running through the week.

Drama and the visual arts add a third pillar. Productions have a proper stage in the 240-seat Founder Hall, a proscenium-arch theatre, backed by a fully equipped drama studio, while art spans three art rooms, a ceramic studio, a dedicated print area and a separate Sixth Form Art studio. Service and adventure form a fourth strand. The Combined Cadet Force, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and an Eco Schools programme give students routes into leadership and the outdoors, and from Year 9 they can choose between the CCF, adventurous training and other structured commitments. On the intellectual side sit competitions and societies that stretch well beyond lessons: VEX Robotics and the CANSAT satellite challenge for the engineers, an Esports and a Flight Simulator club for the technically minded, and the student-written publication Polyphony, which covers current affairs, economics and politics. Chess, coding, journalism, History Oxbridge groups and subject clinics fill out an academic-enrichment list that is unusually deep.

Fees are charged per term. For 2025-26 the published day rates are £5,109 per term for the Infant School, £5,944 for the Junior School, and £7,461 for both the Senior School and the Sixth Form, which works out at roughly £22,400 a year for senior and sixth-form pupils on a termly-times-three estimate. Infant School lunches add £285 a term, and a refundable acceptance deposit of £800 is held and returned when a child leaves. A 5% discount applies to the third and any subsequent sibling from Spring 2026. Nursery fees are listed separately, and families should consult the school for those.

Crucially, the school sets cost against a real financial-aid offer. Around 10% of Senior School pupils receive some form of financial assistance. Means-tested bursaries, assessed annually on parental income, are available at Year 7 entry and may cover the full or partial cost of tuition for families who qualify. Alongside them sit honorary Sir Thomas White entrance scholarships, awarded to the top performers at Year 7 as a mark of achievement rather than a fee reduction, and music scholarships for candidates at around Grade 4 standard or above on their principal instrument. The distinction is worth keeping clear: a bursary is means-tested help based on what a family can afford, while a scholarship recognises merit. Here the scholarships are honorary or music-based, so the bursary route is the one that genuinely widens access for families on lower incomes, and it is concentrated at the single Year 7 entry point.

Nottingham High School operates as a single all-through site in central Nottingham, so a family can keep a child in one place from the early years through to the end of the sixth form. The early years follows the Early Years Foundation Stage, with detailed schemes of work covering personal, social and emotional development, physical development, communication and language, literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts, plus weekly PE, and the timetable deliberately mirrors the Reception day so the youngest children build the rhythms of school life early. For nursery fee details, see the school website; government-funded hours are available for eligible families, and you can read our guide to nursery funding.

The school draws students from a broad area and runs an extensive coach network, with routes reaching Beeston, Long Eaton and Spondon to the west, Ruddington, Keyworth and West Bridgford to the south, Sherwood, Arnold and Mansfield to the north, and Bingham, Southwell and Newark to the east. Families outside those corridors travel by car or public transport, so it is worth checking the current route map and pick-up points with the school directly.

Entry is competitive at every stage. From the assessment mornings for younger children to the three-paper Year 7 examination and the five-grade-7 sixth-form threshold, places are won on assessment, and only around 100 candidates reach interview at 11. Families should prepare for a selective process and have a back-up plan, because the academic bar is set deliberately high.

Financial help is concentrated at one entry point. Means-tested bursaries are available at Year 7 only, and the named academic scholarships are honorary rather than fee-reducing. Families relying on aid to meet the fees should look closely at what each award actually covers, and plan around that single window.

This is an academically intense environment. The pace and expectations suit motivated, capable children who thrive on challenge. A child who needs a gentler, less results-focused setting may find the tempo demanding, even with the strong pastoral support in place.

Some sport happens off site. While the pool, sports hall and fitness suite are on the school grounds, the main playing fields sit about two miles away and several specialist venues are hired, which means some travel built into the games timetable.

Nottingham High School is one of the strongest academic schools in England. Ranked in the top 1.9% in England at GCSE and the top 2.2% at A-level, first in its Nottingham area at both stages, and sending the large majority of its leavers to university with a steady stream to Oxbridge and medicine, it delivers on the academic promise its long history implies. Around that core sits a genuinely deep co-curricular offer, from the Lady Carol Djanogly Music School and the 240-seat Founder Hall to a 25-metre pool, VEX Robotics, the CCF and more than a hundred clubs, and pastoral care of a comprehensive and effective standard.

It is best suited to academically able, motivated children, from nursery age upwards, whose families want a single all-through school that will stretch them and open doors to the most competitive universities, and who can either meet the fees or qualify for a means-tested bursary at Year 7. The main caveat is the obvious one: entry is selective and demanding at every stage, and the financial aid that widens access is concentrated at a single point. For the right child, this is about as complete an education as a single Nottingham site can offer.